25+ Best Christmas Games for Kids to Play in 2024

Gather around, young adventurers to become a part of some of the most exciting Christmas games for kids, that’ll light up your holiday party! Imagine yourself participating in hilarious challenges to doing mind-bending puzzles, what fun it would be! These games bring giggles and teamwork to the festivities, making your Christmas party a memory-filled blast!

Christmas games stand out with their festive themes, holiday characters, and joyful atmospheres, unlike regular games. They bring the spirit of the season to life, offering a unique blend of fun and tradition. These games are designed to enhance kids’ overall development that fosters their cognitive, motor, and creative skills through festive fun and play.

Here we have put together some of the best Christmas activities and games that your kids will enjoy playing together. So, let’s get started!

Related Reading: Best Christmas Decoration Ideas

Unwrap the holiday joy with our handpicked selection of Christmas party games for kids!

1. Hunting for Candy Canes in the House

You can hide candy canes in unique places around the house for a fun-filled evening of adventure seeking. It’s one of the most fun Christmas party games for kids, requiring minimal setting and cleaning-up. All you need to do is to hide candy canes in areas where the kids would normally search in.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Candy canes, string, decoys

Skills Learned: Memory, object recognition

2. Stacking the Tallest Gift Box Tower

Making a tower is one of the most interesting Christmas games for kids, as you help them navigate the challenge of stacking ten or more mid-sized boxes. You can also talk about different ways of stacking the boxes, as well as different strategies to help them use their creativity and basic engineering skills.

Ideal Age Range: 5 years and up

Things Needed: Boxes, gift wrap, accessories

Skills Learned: Visual processing, design

3. Reindeer Ring-toss

The best way to bring out the Christmas spirit is to play a simple party game of ring toss. You can set up a bunch of twigs, paint out a reindeer head, and stick the twigs on as antlers. You can encourage kids to toss rings onto the twigs to win a prize. It’s important to allow them to slowly practice their aim and develop their sense of coordination.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Twigs, cardboard, rings, prizes

Skills Learned: Hand–eye coordination, gross-motor skills

4. Gone fishin’

One of the best easy Christmas games for little kids is the fishing for canes game. You can set up mason jars with candy canes, and make a fishing rod out of a stick, some thread, and a keychain loop at the end. Kids can pick up the canes with the looped fishing pole and enjoy the sweet treat for Christmas.

Ideal Age Range: 3 years and up

Things Needed: Stick, thread, small ring, candy cane, jar

Skills Learned: Hand–eye coordination, concentration, patience.

5. What’s Inside the Stocking?

Guessing games are one of those easy Christmas games for kids that can pack a surprise when the object is discovered. You can hide whacky objects in stockings, such as oranges, reindeer cookies, pieces of cake, or a Santa toy. Kids can only access, look at or touch the exterior of the stocking to make their guesses using their imagination.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Stockings, various objects

Skills Learned: Creative thinking, kinesthetic perception

6. Freeze! Santa’s Here

This is one of the essential Christmas themed games for kids requiring a simple music-based setup. You can have kids dance to music and suddenly freeze in the middle of their dance moves by saying “Santa’s here.” They need to stay still and not move an inch in order to continue playing and having a blast. Whoever moves is out of the game.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Music

Skills Learned: Flexibility, coordination

Related Reading: Best Music Games for Kids That Mix Learning With Sounds 

7. Decorate Cookies

You can have kids design Christmas cookies, in this fun-filled baking activity. They can bake their cookies and work on making different objects, designs, and aesthetics using icing or fondant. You can give teams different themes as well, such as Santa Claus, reindeers, Christmas tree, etc.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Cookie dough, icing, fondant

Skills Learned: Creativity, baking

8. Find the Numbered Ornament Place

Your kids can hang ornaments in their right placeholders by hunting for the matching number. An ornament can have a clue that says, “What is 40/8?” They would have to hunt for the number 5 and place the ornament to complete the decorations. It’s one of the best kids’ games for Christmas parties that focuses on developing math skills.

Ideal Age Range: 5 years and up

Things Needed: Christmas tree, numbers, ornaments

Skills Learned: Problem-solving, math

 Related Reading: Best Problem Solving Activities for Kids to Encourage Critical Thinking

9. Santa Hat Stack

One of the most unique Christmas games ideas for kids is the Santa hat stack. You can place an inverted red cup with a white pom-pom on its head and ask kids to place a cup and a small pom-pom each. It should look like a bunch of Santa hats stacked on top of each other. Kids will need to continue stacking and ensure that the tower doesn’t tip over.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Red cups, small balls

Skills Learned: Balance, hand–eye coordination

10. Snowman Ball Toss

You can paint features on plain white cups to make them look like snowmen. You can stack them in a pyramid and have kids toss snow-white soft balls at them. This Christmas party game can be made even more interesting by making larger sized pyramids for kids to aim at.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: White cups, stationery, soft ball

Skills Learned: Strength, patience

11. Mitten Unwrapping

Some of the fun Christmas games for kids include wrapping and unwrapping presents. You can make this a problem-solving task by having your kids open their presents while wearing mittens. They would need to use tools and their own ingenuity to open tightly wrapped presents.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Mittens, gift wrap

Skills Learned: Problem-solving

12. What’s That Tune?

You can start by singing a piece of melody or play a snippet of a Christmas carol. You can then have your kids guess the name of the tune and complete the song with the right lyrics. These musical Christmas games for kids are interactive and can lead to hours of boundless fun.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Music

Skills Learned: Memory recall, creative expression

Related Reading: Jolly Christmas Songs for Kids to Sing Along to This Holiday Season

13. Let’s Dress Up!

You can have your kids dress up as a designated Christmas cartoon character. Elsa, Olaf, Santa, Rudolph, and other beloved characters can be role-played by your little ones in the Christmas activity. It’s one of the most fun Christmas games for kids as it sparks a sense of creativity.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Toilet paper, caps, stationery, bedsheets

Skills Learned: Creative design, memory recall

14. Get the Reindeer Home

You can create a Christmas-themed maze, with tape, frills, and cardboard, and have your kids get the reindeer home. You can use reindeer toys, cutouts, or a combination of the two, and have your children guide them through a maze on the floor.

Ideal Age Range: 3 years and up

Things Needed: Paper, cardboard, tape, frills,

Skills Learned: Problem-solving, fine motor skills

15. The Christmas Tree Balancing Act

The Christmas tree balancing act requires you to make a Christmas tree out of green and brown colored paper, and have your children walk along the taped line without going over. They can use a balance beam or walk along the line without support. This is a great way to boost their confidence through physical activity.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Tape, green and brown paper

Skills Learned: Balance, patience

16. The Iceberg Hop

You can set up a jumping puzzle for your kids with white circles representing icebergs and blue ones representing the deep ocean. Your kids will have to go from one end to the other without stepping on blue circles. The themed activity strengthens problem-solving and coordination skills in younger kids.

Ideal Age Range: 3 years and up

Things Needed: Paint, cardboard

Skills Learned: Strength, gross motor skills

17. Decorate the Snowman!

Creative Christmas games for kids are always a hit in any household as children end up with unique artistic representations that can be proudly displayed. You can use empty toilet rolls as the base of the snowmen, and have your kids paint, glue, cut through, and redesign the white toilet roll to make a complete snowman.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: M&Ms, googly eyes, paint, cardboard, toilet roll

Skills Learned: Fine motor skills, creativity

18. Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle

A jigsaw puzzle  based on Christmas theme is one of the most fun and visually appealing problem-solving based Christmas games. Kids can sharpen their focus and attention skills through jigsaw puzzles, as they require matching, elimination, and specific fine motor skills.

Ideal Age Range: 5 years and up

Things Needed: Jigsaw puzzle

Skills Learned: Fine motor skills, problem solving

CTA: Puzzle games for children online! 

19. What Does Santa Need to Bring?

Santa’s planning to visit children around the world and needs a few things. Kids can start with the letter A and continue on till Z, and list out things that Santa would need to complete his journey. This is a great way to improve English skills, as well as improving confidence with different syllable words.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Notepad

Skills Learned: Vocabulary skills

20. Paper Plate Festivities

By using a paper plate as a blank canvas, you can ask kids to draw Santa, reindeers, snowmen, and other classic Christmas-themed characters. They can give them features, funny hats, noses, antlers, and other interesting accessories. This is a great way to improve creativity and empower kids to follow through on a mini project.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Paper plate, stationery, props, hats

Skills Learned: Design, creative expression

21. Smartphone Treasure Hunt

You can leave multiple sets of clues for a treasure hunt, and have your children take a picture of that item in the house to capture their finds. You can make the clues Christmas themed, and have the final prize be their actual Christmas present. You can even send them clues in the form of pictures to make them use their deductive skills.

Ideal Age Range: 7 years and up

Things Needed: Phone/camera, treasure hunt clues

Skills Learned: Critical thinking

22. The Delicate Balance

A ruler/scale, some jingle bells, reindeer toys, and a paper towel roll is all you need for this one. You can balance the scale on the cardboard roll and have your kids balance different objects on either side. Once the scales are balanced on either side, kids will have to push a small Santa sleigh from one side to the other.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Cardboard roll, toys, props, jingle bells

Skills Learned: Elementary science, concentration

23. Christmas Unscrambling

You can create or print out a list of scrambled words that are Christmas themed, for your kids to solve. You can also give them hints or add statements instead of single words. E.g., “I am ONIGG to buy a present for Grandma.” Kids can sharpen their critical reasoning skills and understand verbs, tenses, and subjects better.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: List of questions, printable sheet

Skills Learned: Vocabulary skills

Related Reading: Best Vocabulary Games to Play in Your Classroom

24. How Many Peppermint Candies

A great guessing game for kids is the “How many candies in the jar?” one, which can be made into a fun Christmas activity for everyone to participate in. You can buy predetermined quantities of peppermint candies and have them stored in different sized mason jars. Kids can get 15–20 seconds to take a look, and mention their guesses.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Candies, mason jars

Skills Learned: Quick calculation skills

25. Writing Christmas Letters

An interesting Christmas game is to have kids write letters to Santa, and then write letters to different kids from the perspective of Santa, Rudolph, Olaf, and other characters. This is a great exercise to help teach kids about voice, tense, verbs, and other grammatical constructs. It also helps them develop their sense of empathy through expression.

Ideal Age Range: 5 years and up

Things Needed: Stationery

Skills Learned: English skills

26. Christmas Memory Tray

You can make a Christmas-themed tray of items and reveal them to your kids for around 10 seconds. You can have them recall each item, in this fun-filled Christmas game. Memory-based games allow children to sharpen their recall and visualization skills in a visually stimulating environment.

Ideal Age Range: 4 years and up

Things Needed: Tray, Christmas-themed items

Skills Learned: Memory recall skills

Related Reading: Best Christmas Movies for Kids

Let’s Warm Up That Hot Chocolate and Start Planning!

With these super-awesome Christmas games, you can empower your kids by making their festive season educational and knowledge based. You can strengthen their cognitive capabilities with interesting and unique experiences that are hands-on and highly stimulating.  Remember to make activities more cooperative and collaborative to have kids benefit fully from these fun-filled Christmas-themed experiences.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do you entertain kids at a Christmas party?

Christmas activities, movies, sleepover nights, and sing-alongs are some of the best ways to keep kids engaged during the holiday season.

How do you make Christmas activities more fun for kids?

You can make activities theme-based and integrate multiple props, silly costumes, music, etc. in it.

What common supplies would I need for Christmas crafts and games?

Key craft objects would include toilet paper rolls, paper plates, paint, stationery, bells, and toys.

How can I keep kids excited about participating in Christmas activities?

The best approach is to keep them engaged about the things they care about the most, and then expanding their areas of interest organically for maximum participation.